ON SATURDAY morning I climbed up a hill and gazed down on a Yorkshire limestone landscape basking in the sunshine. The views were amazing, and there was even a mild breeze to offset the heat of the day.

The problems of everyday life had been left in the lowlands below; it couldn’t have been much better.

My mood of general wellbeing was enhanced later in the day, as I had drawn Ballabriggs in the office Grand National sweep – until, of course, I learned of the two horses which died so punters could have a thrill with the jumps at Aintree.

There was also a little cloud – a metaphorical one, definitely not real cumulonimbus – floating over my enjoyment of my walk in the sunshine.

The weather was very nice, but it also seemed wrong, just so unseasonal. This wasn’t just me being “glass half full”; I seem to recall early bursts of sunshine tend to be a precursor to miserable, damp English summers.

There was another, more selfish reason. You see, spring happens to be, along with early autumn, one of my favourite times of year.

I’m glad the snow and ice have gone and I don’t want to be soaked by April showers, but I quite like to be in open air which has a bit of bite to it, with a brisk breeze and maybe the odd touch of mist or even a spot of drizzle in my face.

I find it enlivening in a way summer can’t match, yet once I got down from the hill the temperature at the weekend was more akin to August than April.

So okay, it was all very nice, but I, for one, am quite pleased that the weather seems to have changed, so we can enjoy some real spring days.

Mind you, this is a funny time of year. The football season is reaching its climax, yet the cricket season has already started, which is no doubt a great relief to cricket fans, who obviously have been deprived of coverage of their favourite sport during the long, cold winter months.

The other thing that seems to me to be slightly out of time and unreal is the kick-off to the council election campaign.

Now, I know this is a very important election for York, but the fact we seem to be having the best part of a month of campaigning ahead of the May 5 polling date makes the whole thing, for me, anyway, uncomfortably reminiscent of the last General Election.

That seemingly interminable campaign gave this humble member of the electorate enough of an aversion to the democratic process to be less than happy about the sight of politicians getting into election overdrive once more.

Also, I have this rather old-fashioned view that local council elections should be exactly that, local, and not a large-scale opinion poll on how the Government of the day is doing.

I know many people will vehemently disagree with me, saying it’s important to send a message to Downing Street, to which I would merely remark that, judging from the pages of The Press over the past four years, you might think we had plenty of issues to argue about emanating from York itself without deciding the matter on national issues.

For once I’m not pointing the finger at the politicians, for I hope and expect they will do battle on local issues, but I fear many voters, and the national media, will treat the elections as what the writer of a letter to The Press very aptly called “a premature referendum on the coalition”.

Come polling day I will also have a bit of a dilemma, as I will probably have to change my vote from the General Election, since the party I supported then has adopted a policy at local level which I cannot support.

All in all, for me the election, like the summer weather, has come a bit too soon.